by a route obscure and lonely, haunted by ill angels only...

[ushered]

[Open to threadhopping, but no Roderick tags, please!]

The Kashtta is deteriorating. The signs are everywhere, and have been-in the way the walls seem to be cracking more each day, the paint fading and flaking; in the floors that creak and moan; in the air itself, so dank and foul, just hanging in every open space

Comments

*needs to rearrange his icons so they have the painting one again*

[smileforaliving]

He's willing to admit that the Tower unnerves him. There's just smething abut the building that sets him on edge in general and it's only been getting worse this past month or so

[burkethejerk]

Peter hasn't been sleeping all that much himself lately, but he'd been trying to change that. He had meant to be asleep now, in fact. He had been in bed, he had been trying, and he'd tired enough to sleep, it just hadn't worked

[smileforaliving]

Neal has no idea what he's missing tonight but between how angry the storm sounds and the general creepiness of the Kashtta these last few weeks, he's not in any mood to find out.

He sees Peter and grins, moving out of the way fo the coffee maker. Far be it form him to be in the way of Peter Burke and his coffee.

Tapping his mug against Peter's when he settles in, he grins. "I didn't think you'd be up," he points out, taking a drink. "Not that I'm complaining. I don't actually think there is an area of this place that isn't a little unsettling right now."

The kitchen didn't used to be creepy, he remembers that, apparently that stopped being true at some point.

[burkethejerk]

"Nowhere that I've found," Peter agrees, sipping at his coffee. "I couldn't get to sleep. Figured if I'm going to be up, I might as well be fully awake."

He hadn't quite decided if he was going with that plan -- he was going to see if walking around made him any more tired -- but he'd rather hang around the kitchen with Neal than try to sleep again, so it's decided now.

"Taking a break from painting?"

[smileforaliving]

"I would say we could go exploring but I don't actually know what we would find if we did." And he's in no mood to find out either. SO, the kitchen it is. Better the devil you know, after all.

Neal is happy to have him. He might move them into the front room so he can finish what he's doing but he's good with having Peter around. This is generally true of Neal though.

"Yeah, I realized that I hadn't actually had coffee nin a couple of hours and thought I should fix that." He finishes off his cup and pours himself another. He's not going to down this one quite so quickly though.

[burkethejerk]

Peter's ready to shoot it down already before the sentence is finished, so he's pretty glad Neal's not in the mood. "I think this is one of those times it's better not to know. I wouldn't put it past this place to have areas where it gets worse."

He's not going to object to moving as long as it's not into unknown areas, though. He'll probably end up following Neal for the rest of the night, to be honest.

"Oh, well, we can't have that," he responds with a smile, watching Neal make himself another cup. "Are you planning on even trying to sleep at all tonight?"

[smileforaliving]

"You're probably right," he says, his tone vaguely amused. "Though, I have it on good authority that the vents aren't actually that creepy, so you know, we could be wrong."

Oh good, then they can be the pair of idiots who say up all night in the middle of the crazy storm in the haunted house. Or something.

he just shakes his head, sipping at his coffee. "I have my ppriorites,, Peter. Part of those is making sure I have a steady stream of caffeine in my system until all of this is over." He laughs. "Not here--" Then he catches himself, wanting to kick himself for the remark. But he's tired and he's not thinking as quickly as he should. "I'm sure there are plenty of park benches that I could take a nap on when the storm blows over. Either that or I'm winning out over the sunrise."

[burkethejerk]

Peter raises an eyebrow. "Have you been getting to know the maintenance crew? Or is somebody voluntarily spending enough time in the vents to report back on them?"

Apparently so. It'll take a lot of coffee, but at least in this case, better to be the idiots who stay up all night than it is to try and sleep? Not that they're aware of their luck, but it's true.

"I thought you'd have higher standards than a park bench, even with everything going on," Peter replies, and carefully doesn't comment on the moment it took to catch himself. He's not asking; it's easier that way. He changes the subject instead. "Until it's over, huh? So you think the weird stuff is temporary?"

[smileforaliving]

"Someone's voluntarily spending their time there." he shrugs. "It's a thing. I don't think I entirely get it."

Yes, a lot of coffee. Neal is debating the merits of bringing the coffeemaker with him into the front room. He was considering that before Peter showed up but now he's really doing it.

"I've slept on a park bench before," he says with a shrug. "It could be worse." Changing the subject is good. It probably saves everyone a bit of an awkward conversation. "I'm hoping. Either that or the Tower is going to fall apart and I'm not really looking forward to that." He doesn't know if Peter's opinion on everything would change if they no longer had a place to live but he doesn't actually want to find out.

[burkethejerk]

There are several expressions in response to that, ranging from amusement to confusion to being slightly uncomfortable with the idea of someone crawling around the vents, but he's just not going to comment. In part because he's not sure how to actually respond to that bit of information.

He stares down into his coffee cup for a minute, contemplating the odds, before visibly forcing himself to let go of his thoughts. It's not going to do him any good to dwell on it and there's nothing he can do either way.

"Well then, let's hope you're right," he answers as he looks up again. Turning back towards the coffeemaker, he swallows down the last half of his drink and starts to fix himself more. Sleep just keeps seeming like a worse idea.

[smileforaliving]

He He watches the lack of expression and smirks a little. "I caught her breaking into my room. She wanted to take one of the paintings."

He notices that too and looks away. He doesn't want to do anything, doesn't want to try and get Peter's mind off of it and somehow make it worse. It's better to let him come to his own conclusions.

"Yeah," he shrugs, sipping at his coffee again. "I'm thinking about heading back. Are you going to hang out here?"

[burkethejerk]

"Someone tried to steal your painting." And now Peter's just trying not to laugh. He can't help it, and it might be the lack of sleep, but he's finding that really amusing.

He shrugs. "Maybe. Where are you heading?" He's pretty reluctant to part company, and he's not doing very much to hide it. If he doesn't follow Neal he'll probably end up in the kitchen the rest of the night, but right now he is in favor of having people around in general and Neal in particular. At least unless the atmosphere suddenly lightens, but he's not really expecting that to happen.

[smileforaliving]

"It's true," he leans back and grin s. "She was going to give it to a fried. I told her she didn't have to break in. I wasn't doing anything with them anyway, so she could have just asked."

"I'm camped out in the front room. I've been considering moving other places but I haven't been brave enough to check if they're habitable. If you want to go scouting for me..." He smiles hopefully.

[burkethejerk]

"Of course you did." He shakes his head, grinning. "How much have you been painting, that you're catching the attention of random thieves?"

"Better not to know," Peter reminds him, though he does contemplate for a moment. "Specific other places, or were you just going to go poking into whatever you could find?"

If he didn't think there was a chance Neal might get bored and go do it on his own, he wouldn't even be asking, in case it encouraged him.

[smileforaliving]

"It was a complement," he defends. "And I'm really not doing anything with any of it. It's just sitting there. Though I am thinking of selling some of it." he means legally too! "As for how much is in there, I got the first canvas about a month after we showed up. I've been doing pieces ever since then. Drawings too. Really, I've just been doing whatever hits me when I'm bored."

"Right," he takes a big gulp of his coffee. "The front room it is them." At the question, he shrugs. "I don't know. Somewhere that isn't the front room or the kitchen. They have a music room that I was thinking about looking into, I just wasn't sure if it was in decent shape since i haven't looked in on it since this whole thing started."

At the moment, Neal is a little too tired to go exploring. However, he could very well get that bored once the caffeine hits and he gets bored of painting.

[burkethejerk]

"Someone breaking into your room is a complement?" He doesn't sound like he believes it, but nobody should be surprised by that. He's also struggling for a second not to double-check that when Neal mentions selling his art he doesn't mean forgeries, but he manages not to show it. "Selling it's not a bad idea. You should look into it," he encourages instead.

He shrugs. "I don't think I've seen it lately." Peter did his own explorations, but it was not long after they'd gotten here and he hasn't bothered to look around much since things started getting stranger. "I wouldn't think it would be much worse than it is around here, but who knows. Could be even closer to falling apart."